Diavik’s commitment to use four 2.3-megawatt wind turbines at the mine site in order to reduce diesel consumption by 10 per cent (four million litres) and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – a first for Rio Tinto or any other mining company in the world.

This is a business decision, pure and simple. But it will have reverberations across the North and for other industrial operations and communities not connected to a conventional power grid. And like any business decision, Diavik thought this through very carefully. It spent three years collecting wind data, researching wind turbines and designing the project.

The mine’s initiative is beginning to reshape public- and private-sector thinking about wind energy in the NWT. Diavik donated its weather tower to local companies Det’on Cho Earth Energy and Ryfan Wind, and has offered to share its know-how in wind-power engineering, project management and operations and maintenance with the territorial government and the NWT Power Corp.

Unlike the NWT, Alaskan communities have ventured into wind energy is a big way. The state has a combined 12.65 MW of community-scale wind-diesel systems operating in 16 communities. The NWT has noneClick here to edit the content

Photos: Operation Santa goes to Shishmaref The Alaska National Guard provided transport for the good Samaritan program Operation Santa, which took gifts and school supplies to about 300 children in Shishmaref. December 9, 2014...

"... More than 100 delegates from across the Northwest Territories came together in Yellowknife over the past two days to hammer out an action plan to combat poverty in the NWT. ... Participants in the Second Annual Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Roundtable included representatives from community organizations, Aboriginal and community governments, non-government organizations and the private sector, representing every region of the NWT. The event was hosted by the Department of Health and Social Services...."

This case study uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine Inuit and First Nations perspectives and initiatives to foster sustainable entrepreneurship and economic development related to the forthcoming Mackenzie Gas Pipeline in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The 1,220-kilometer pipeline will connect the Mackenzie Delta to the Alberta Oil Sands and North American markets. These findings will be of interest to business, government and Indigenous leaders involved in resource development. Key aspects include self-government and land claim agreements, approaches to entrepreneurship and economic development, sustainable development, human resource development initiatives, business service support and increased participation of women and Aboriginal peoples. .

It’s common for drivers to watch for bison as they speed along NWT highways, but last week, those near Fort Smith had to be extra cautious as a full building was hauled down the road.

Northern_Clips's insight:

"...

The building was transported over the course of two days, first from Pine Lake to a point just outside of Fort Smith along Pine Lake Road on Sept. 3 and to its final destination the next day.

According to Morin, WBNP officials decided to move the old building because it was the more cost-efficient option, with the actual cost being around $130,000 compared to the $400,000 it would have cost to build a new fire base from the ground up...."

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus on the AFN thinking of setting up a commission of inquiry about the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and RCMP policing. NWT RCMP Sgt. Barry Ledoux also speaks on what the NWT RCMP is doing about the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and also policing issues in the NWT's smaller communities at the Native Women's Association of the NWT AGM

After living in the shadow of the oilsands for over four decades, people in Fort Chipewyan are hoping the giant fossil fuel industry located upstream near Fort McMurray will help shed a more positive light on the community by funding a...

#NWT The Road is Gold - #turninglight has added a photo to the pool: Late day dog run on McLeod Bay on Great Slave Lake. http://ow.ly/2EF0r2 #mushingThe Road is Gold #Dog #Mushing on #NWT's #GreatSlaveLake #turninglight #photo

Aurora College students in Fort Smith were given a challenge by one of Canada’s foremost Canadian circumpolar historians: Set the country straight on Northern sovereignty.

Whitney Lackenbauer, a history professor at the University of Waterloo, was in the NWT last week to launch his latest book, The Canadian Rangers: A Living History in Yellowknife. The author’s visit included a stop in Fort Smith where he held several lectures for students at Aurora College’s Thebacha campus.

During Lackenbauer’s lecture on Northern Canadian sovereignty on Wednesday, which chronicled Canada’s historical interest in the North, he urged students to be the force that breaks the cycle of government interest waxing and waning in the North.

“I hope all of you will be in the forefront of making sure we don’t allow southern Canadians to get caught up in that sovereignty crisis mindset that, when the crisis doesn’t come true, people just forget about the North,” he told the class.

Canadian understanding of sovereignty needs to move away from the vision of an Arctic military threat that has coloured the media in the last several years to rest on the people who occupy the land, Lackenbauer said.

Northern_Clips's insight:

"...Canadian understanding of sovereignty needs to move away from the vision of an Arctic military threat that has coloured the media in the last several years to rest on the people who occupy the land, Lackenbauer said...."

Fort Resolution governments to work with GNWT on forestry The Fort Resolution Métis Council and Deninu Kué First Nation have agreed to work with the GNWT to manage the forestry industry, signing a five-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) last...

Third in a row: Northwest Territories budget predicts $200M surplus Macleans.ca That means Miltenberger's population goal could bring in as much revenue to the territory as its entire net take from getting control over its natural resources.

Wild foods are important to Alaskans, and especially to rural residents, but subsistence users and scientists say climate change is affecting wildlife populations, access to subsistence resources, and food preservation.

Yellowknife RCMP say that Atsumi Yoshikubo, a Japanese tourist reported missing one week ago, ‘arrived in Yellowknife with a plan to go into the wilderness alone and become a missing person.’ She’s now presumed dead.

It took more than six years of intense lobbying, but Yellowknifers have a commitment from the federal government on key issues affecting the $1-billion remediation of the former Giant gold mine site.

Northern_Clips's insight:

"...Bernard Valcourt, minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, pledged to create an independent body to oversee the project, but stopped short of establishing a research centre dedicated to finding an alternative to the indefinite storage of Giant’s most lasting legacy – 237,000 tonnes of deadly arsenic trioxide...."

A new partnership of chiefs, former politicians, lawyers and professionals from across the country is promising a new partnership between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada, but so far the response has been a mix of support and skepticism.

Former prime ministers Paul Martin and Joe Clark were joined by former premier Bob Rae, former auditor general Sheila Fraser, Justice Murray Sinclair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Aboriginal leaders like Ovide Mercredi, Phil Fontaine, Mary Simon and Sheila Watt-Cloutier, among others, to announce Canadians for a New Partnership (CFNP) in Ottawa last Thursday.

Northern_Clips's insight:

Canadians for a New Partnership "...The organization, being chaired by former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi, is focused on uniting Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians in building “a strong economy and values-based society” for present and future generations...."

The federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development approved the plan to clean up Yellowknife's Giant Mine this week, after deliberating over the review's final report for more than a year.

Northern_Clips's insight:

"...The plans include freezing 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide, a byproduct of decades of mining gold. It also involves filling in underground tunnels and cleaning up tailings areas. There are about 95 hectares of waste on the surface of the site.

The minister's approval makes changes to eight of the 26 conditions the review board put on its approval of the project. ..."

Lakes that typically host dozens of happy anglers each year during the Fort Smith and Fort Chipewyan fishing derbies will be left alone this year due to unsafe conditions and health problems, according to organizers.

A “chill” has befallen the various sectors of government bureaucracy in the NWT, preventing employees from signing onto a petition that asks leaders to forward future fracking applications to environmental assessment, says MLA Bob Bromley.

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